Government plans to change the way in which health services are administered from the beginning of next year could be thrown into disarray, if thousands of health service staff vote for industrial action over the next two weeks.
Up to 15,000 members of the IMPACT trade union, who work in management and administrative grades, are to be balloted on industrial action from next Monday.
These grades are angry at the ongoing uncertainty hanging over their careers as a result of plans to abolish health boards at the end of the year and transfer the day-to-day running of the health service to the new Health Service Executive, according to IMPACT secretary Mr Kevin Callinan.
He said yesterday that IMPACT had been engaged in discussions with the Department of Health about the changes for several months but there was still no clarity for staff. "They have said vaguely that there will be no compulsory redundancies, but the reality is staff don't know where they are going to be." This had precipitated the ballot.
The ballot will be concluded on November 19th and if members vote for industrial action, the action taken will range from non-cooperation with the new structure up to and including strike action.
"The expectation was that all these things would be ironed out well in advance," he added. The reality was that the Government's plans were "woefully under-cooked".
Mr Callinan went one: "Health service managers are already being diverted from dealing with bed shortages, the A&E crisis and poor primary care facilities as they try to work out the details and cope with confusion over new structures.
"January will bring chaos over who is responsible for payroll, budgets, information technology, and other core functions because old structures will be abolished before new ones are properly in place.
"We've tried to co-operate with management to ensure that services and staff are protected in as smooth a changeover as possible. We'll continue to try. But it's hard to see how this can now be achieved in the time available."
The chairman of the interim Health Service Executive, Mr Kevin Kelly, has already said there will be "no big bang" when the changes are implemented on January 1st.
But Mr Callinan said this could not disguise the fact that "we are totally unprepared to move to a new system, and that patients and services-users face further hardship unless the Government recognises this and steps back from the abyss".
A spokesman for the Department of Health said last evening the Department was examining the issues raised by IMPACT.